Bibliography

Illustrated Catalogue of the Tenth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English Schools, being a portion of the Sedelmeyer Gallery.... Paris, 1906: no. 96, repro.

1914

Hundred Masterpieces. A Selection from the Pictures by Old Masters which form or have formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1914: 206, no.97, repro.

1915

Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.

European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 355, repro.

1992

Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 243-245, repro. 244.

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, smoothly applied. The painting is executed in very rich, obvious brushstrokes, thinly in the darks with relatively high impasto especially in the right sleeve; the background layers consist of a dark, cool red over a warmer vermilion. There appear to be some pentimenti in the hat and the papers on the table. There is marked traction crackle in the background, probably caused by the presence of bitumen, which has been infilled and has now discolored; retouching extends over much of the shadows in the arms and hands, and in scattered areas of the background, while the chair is extensively overpainted. The thick natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.